Subj : I finally got my license To : Ray Quinn From : DaiTengu Date : Tue Oct 06 2020 15:58:50 Re: I finally got my license By: Ray Quinn to DaiTengu on Mon Sep 28 2020 02:57 pm Da>> Well, I finally did it. A co-worker is a VE for a remote testing Da>> organization, and he managed to squeeze me into a session late Da>> thursday night (with some other VE in Texas). I passed my Tech and Da>> General exams, and Friday I received my callsign: KD9QHQ RQ> Congratulations!! I'm not sure whether or not our VE group is setup for RQ> remote testing. I do know that we use Zoom for a lot of things, Club RQ> meetings (board & general), and just general stuff. Our local club held its first meeting since Feburary a few weeks ago, it was mixed in-person and on Zoom. I attended remotely, as I was taking care of a sick dog at the time, and I'm trying to be responsible and stay home when I can. Speaking of which, we had to put the dog to sleep 2 weeks ago, he had bone cancer and the pain meds just weren't doing it anymore, so it was the humane thing to do. We made the appointment, and took him in. They weren't allowing anyone inside the vet's office, so the vet and the vet tech came outside and it was handled in the back of our vehicle (which was fine). Turns out the vet tech didn't feel real well the next day, took a test and was positive for covid. We were all wearing masks and washed our hands/sanitized, etc. THe wife and I quarrantined for two weeks, but we haven't had any symptoms, so according to the WHO and CDC we're in the clear. I guess we dodged a bullet there, as both of us are "high risk" Da>> Now that I've spent $18 on testing/studying, I guess I'll need to Da>> save up for the $2000+ I want to spend to build my hamshack :) RQ> ONLY $2000? I lost track a long time ago. Well, since i posted that I went and spent the $2000. I got an IC-7300 (like the rest of the world, apparently), and an End-fed Halfwave antenna that has been a giant pain in the ass (it's about 130ft long). It's been years since I've put connectors on coax, but I honestly don't remember it being this hard. I have the proper tools, soldering iron, coax stripper, right size crimper, etc, and they either short out on me, or pop off with a simple tug. I mean, the coax I have isn't the best right now, it's 3 lengths of RG8u, with a Mix31 toroid that has rg58 wrapped around it about 15 times, and a short rg58 jumper to run through the window. Yesterday I spent hours re-doing everything, and getting the antenna up where I wanted it (it literally runs diagonally from the top of a tree in my front yard, all the way across my house, to the top of a tree in my back yard. Anyway, I tested all the connectors, got the antenna up to the top of the tree with ropes and a really long pole to push the transformer box over branches, and everything was quite ducky. Until I was on the radio about 7pm last night, and suddenly my band went dead, then came back, then went dead, then came back ... my SWR would go from 1:1 to off the scale. I went outside and adjusted the coax coming off the antenna, and that fixed things for a little while, but it got windy and it started again. I'm going to have to pull the whole thing down and re-do the connector on the antenna. which is probably the one connector that I haven't re-done on that cable. It's great when it works though! I'm having a blast doing FT8! I've worked almost all 50 states, I'm just missing Alaska. Which I worked once, but it's sitting unconfirmed. Da>> ... Extreme boredom serves to cure boredom. RQ> Talk about extreme boredom. I am on day 44 of "working" on the California RQ> wildfires. My job is deliver the dozer and then wait until they need to RQ> move it again. I was "staging" at the same location for over a week, going RQ> to base camp every night for a hot meal and a shower. The owner of the RQ> dozer I am hauling on this trip brought his travel trailer for us to sleep RQ> in. I know very much about boredom... zzzzz zzzz zzzz Man, I don't think I'd be able to hack it. I need to keep my mind occupied with .. something. You'rea stronger man than I am! DaiTengu .... Ahh! Come on Erick, just this one last little feature! --- þ Synchronet þ War Ensemble BBS - The sport is war, total war - warensemble.com .